Return to Academic Venture Fund
2011: New Sales Approach for Improved Cookstoves
Half the world cooks on inefficient wood and charcoal stoves. Improved cookstoves can reduce carbon dioxide emissions and deforestation and save households the substantial cost of buying or gathering fuel, yet the global poor have not widely adopted cleaner-burning stoves. In a pilot program in Uganda, researchers will test a novel stove sales approach—essentially rent-to-own—that offers a free trial period and financing through fuel savings to increase dramatically local adoption of more efficient stoves.